cycling sucks...

you read that right. now let me tell you why i make this statement.

i pick up another magazine about cycling, and in it i find another article relating cycling (in this case mountain biking) to meditation. i find a problem with this, because (knowing what i know, or do i?) meditation (i believe) is removed from 'magazine mountain' biking. this is why...

what do you see when you open the pages of a mountain bike mag.? glorious pictures of biking at places that i will never be...check. doing things on a bike that i will never do...check. riding bikes and components that i will never ride...check (and i work at a shop)

meditation being closely related to Buddhism and Hinduism; as a religious aspect. now, taken from there...what do these religions teach us? to, in essence, detach from the material. now, i believe if Siddhārtha (the man who became the Buddha) would walk the earth today he would be riding a bike. a simple bike. maybe even a single speed.

the problem...we glorify our single speeds (number one). number two...think of the sweetest bike you own; is it simple to maintain? for me...the answer is no. my bushing are gone on my full-suspension, work, time, money; and not to mention that it is hanging up until i am able to get this done.

is this a detachment? is this a letting go of the material?

in the spring i built up a monster cross bike. some of you may have seen it; either in person or on my flickr page. in any case...people have asked me about it, and my only reply is 'it's fun.' meaning...there's no fuss. i get out on it and ride. now i have realized that since i am an old man, a rigid fork is hard to take, but in any case...it's a great ride. nothing to really worry about. i don't have to mind the air in any shock, or fluid in any disc brake...just ride. and that's a good thing.

in the computer world there is a term (and shitcakes if i forgot it now) that there will be a time when we cannot fit any more info onto a computer chip and the industry will crash. meaning we will not be able to make computers any faster or more compact. then what? well...i'm waiting for that time in the bike industry as well. when will we reach the limits of carbon? when will we reach the limits of weight? of shifting? which remains our biggest problem. metal to metal. when will the hype run out? ten speed (mountain or road), eleven speed, electronic shifting...what's next?

don't get me wrong...i'm not above this. i'm not one of those pseudo intellectuals riding a single speed/fixie for political reasons (which is bullshit), making fun of you because of what you ride (unless you're really riding shit, and thinking that you're hardcore), i'm not shitting upon you because you watch tv, read these mags., or buy into it...hell i'm with you (i want to re-do my full suspension)...i'm part of this too, but there becomes a point where we all need to let it go.

let the weight of the bike go. let the 'pimp' parts go. remember, unless you're getting paid to ride...it's not the ride that sucks...it's you...

amitabha...